Call Kurtis Investigates: Hotel Photo Fake-outs

Before booking your next vacation on the web, realize the hotel photos you see online may not be what you get.

"It was just a big shock. It was a lot different than the website," Laura Ambriz of Stockton recalls.

She thought she'd get the finest modern amenities with old world elegance at the Historic Mayfair Hotel in the heart of Los Angeles.

After all that's what it says on their site. Instead of the promised charming historical hotel?

"It felt really gross and dirty," she said.

So gross she reached for her phone and snapped photos.

"The beds didn't even have covers on them," she said. "They had a piece of flowered sheet."

Her photos show ripped up carpet, exposed electrical switches and loaded up electrical outlets. She says the bath tub was just 2 1/2 feet long.

"I've never seen anything like it before," she said. "It was really weird. It was really strange."

From her 12th story room, she says there were no safety barriers on the windows.

Our CBS13 camera went inside the Mayfair where we found damaged baseboards, ripped up wallpaper and came across a woman who just checked in on the 15th floor. She was not happy when she saw no screens on the windows.

"Oh my God, no screen at all. That's the most dangerous thing I've seen in my entire life," she said.

Elie Seidman's travel company Oyster.com, created something called the photo fakeout. His team has traveled to 1,500 hotels snapping pictures of what you really get.

"All too often you kind of look online, research around, then arrive at the hotel you chose and it wasn't exactly what you imagined," Seidman said.

He shows pictures of exotic private beaches advertised. The real picture is a crowded beach where you'd struggle to find a place to sit.

Another Los Angeles hotel shows a pool under the Southern California sky. In reality, if you pan left, you have a view of a department store.

"Downstairs on the street is one of the busiest streets of Los Angeles," he said. "And you hear ambulances going by."

CBS13 asked what the problem was with these hotels putting out the best photos they possibly can.

"This is a product you can't see before you buy," Seidman responded. "And you certainly can't return it, and it's got to be perfect. When they exaggerate, they're taking that away from you."

He says there hasn't been much response from hotels. He says you can't argue with his site's photos.

When it comes to Ambriz and her stay at the Mayfair Hotel, she says if you're going to advertise it, you should be able to deliver it.

"We're not rich people and we wasted money there," she said.

The Mayfair Hotel indicated it wanted to respond to our findings but never did and would not respond to our multiple phone calls.